ball?

neurotic green eyes homed in and he began wiggling fiendishly. utah gingerly grasped his snout to look him in the eyes, stroking the top of his head. “jaaax, it’s okay, buddy. ya don’t need it. shhh.” she shook her head and spoke in a soothing voice, albeit with an amused lilt.

BALL.

whipping his head wildly, he freed himself of she who would stand in his way.

a blur of yellow streaked across the park at breakneck speed, paws kicking up dirt, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth goofily.



“oh, oh no! HAH! HAHA! JAX, NOOOOO!” there was no use. she slowed, panted with hands on her knees, and grinned, watching the inevitable play out. “LOOK OUUUTTT!” to her dog, to their dog, to everyone.

the impact hit, and the ball was swiped. the blur looped back around and then went careening towards utah as she had been chasing over, who stopped dead in her tracks and looked worried. jax leapt into the air with no plan, landing against his trainer and knocking her into the ground. she hugged him and laughed, wrestling the ball from his mouth, and began walking over.

“sorry! jax is.. *pant* a little enthusiastic.. *pant* here’s your ball back.” only she was speaking to the yamper, and went to hand it to the smaller dog as a peace offering. only then did she look up at the other trainer, giving the meekest grin she could muster and shrugging. “dogs, right?” as though hers had not just nearly launched the yamper into space.

she put out a hand. “hi! i’m utah. this is jax.” she leaned in and whispered with a hand over the side of her face. “it’s short for jackass.” an affectionate bashing with a wink. the dog pokemon lowered himself to the yamper’s height, belly on the grass as he inched closer to the ball.

the boltund met eyes with the yamper, as though realizing its existence for the first time. he barked sharply, panted a moment, and then lunged forward to drag a tongue across its face. friend.

“all kinds.” utah responded for him, and another bark sounded blindly in agreement.

macaron. adorable. utah beamed at the puppy, wondering if boltund had been as cute before his evolution. before she could reach down to gush, the ball was thrown, and they were off again. the boltund was returned to lightning form, zipping after the ball.

utah watched as a couple of pokemon walked out into his trajectory with unfortunate timing, and her mouth went flat, only the tiniest curls on the sides to give hint to her mischievous amusement. her dog was a bowling ball, and she was fine with it, really.

they crashed.

“ope.” and a snort.

she looked over at vera with another laugh. “c’mon!” with that, she ran over to where the pokemon had ended up. when she was there, she hopped into a crouch with her hands on her knees, making noises at the boltund, congratulating him on his strike. then, she reached over to pull the chansey back on to its feet, the eevee having already found its footing.

“hey, it’s okay guys! sorry about that!” she reached up to scratch her head and grinned, and the boltund hopped around excitedly.

utah giggled at the eevee as it rushed past. she’d always been fond of them, although she wasn’t sure if they seemed more feline or canine. it seemed to be a perplexing mixture of both. another eevee appeared from a pokeball, then. brownie. “do you name all your pokemon after desserts? that’s adorable!” she beamed at them, a hand on her boltund who was invasively sniffing the chansey. she looked over at it,

“what do ya think?” after a moment, the chansey gave a lilting, happy cry and delivered a heal pulse on the local pokemon, who were newly invigorated. jax gave the pink fairy an appreciative lick.

at the mention of food, everyone perked up, especially the dog pokemon. he barked at the word ‘curry’ knowingly. utah laughed. “we don’t say ‘no’ to food.” she confirmed. before they headed that way, however, she glimpsed a pair of antlers in her peripheral vision. turning quickly before it could disappear, she gasped. “a sawsbuck!” they were such elegant creatures. they didn’t live in a lavaridge due to the climate, so seeing one was a rare treat for her.

she glanced back at vera and then down to her boltund. “hold on a sec.” then, sneaking over, she did her best to toss a pokeball at it before it could run off, sure she’d only have one chance. once in the ball, she headed back over to their new friends, excited about the catch. with luck and training, she would now have a steed for ground travel.

“ok. ready now.” she grinned.